Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)

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The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) engages in research, training, policy development and advocacy in relation to land and agrarian reform, rural governance and natural resource management. It is committed to social change that empowers the poor, builds democracy and enhances sustainable livelihoods.

Recent Submissions

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in large-scale land deals, often from public lands to the hands of foreign or domestic investors. Popularly referred to as a ‘global land grab’, new land acquisitions ...

South Africa’s small pelagics fishery is moving towards a management strategy using an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), with rights-based management (RBM) as the key rights allocation system. While EAF strives to ...

Scholarship on post-apartheid land reform includes research on land claims made to formal protected areas, such as national parks and state game reserves. Little attention has however, been paid to the question of land ...

The livelihoods of South Africa’s rural African poor have long been characterized by diverse activities, and intertwined with urban opportunities. This paper examines the interlinked nature of land, employment and rural ...

Over the past few decades, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa have pursued redistributive land reform as a means to address rural poverty. The Livelihoods after Land Reform (LaLR) study was carried out between 2007 and ...

This introduction sketches the context and dynamics of agrarian change, rural poverty and
land reform since the end of apartheid in 1994, drawing attention to structural continuities
and new elements in the countrysides ...

Background: The group of small pelagic fish is the largest species group landed globally. A significant proportion of
this nutrient-rich food is processed and lost to livestock feed, fish feed, fish oil, pet food and ...

We welcome Rulli and D’Odorico’s response to our introduction to the Journal for Peasant Studies (JPS) Forum on Global Land Grabbing(Scoones etal.2013) in which we discussed the ‘literature rush’ that has accompanied the ...

The most recent ‘land rush’ precipitated by the convergent ‘crises’ of fuel, feed and food
in 2007–2008 has heightened the debate on the consequences of land investments, with
widespread media coverage, policy commentary ...

Global change is occurring now, often with consequences far beyond those anticipated. Although there is a wide range of assessment approaches available to address-specific aspects of global change, there is currently no ...

The reasons why most small-rights holders do not participate in management of the fishery for small pelagic fish (‘small pelagics’) in South Africa, despite legislation and policy encouraging their participation, were ...

Fisheries provide nutrition and livelihoods for coastal populations, but many fisheries are fully or over-exploited and we lack an approach for analysing which factors affect management tool performance. We conducted a ...

This book is 'the most historically grounded, lucid and nuanced understanding to date of the complex political economy of the contemporary rush for land in Africa' according to Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, Director of of ...

This book presents case studies of large-scale land deals in Southern Africa. It aims to provide an accessible and vivid window into the lived realities and responses of rural people who are affected by such deals. For ...

Hara, Mafaniso; Njokweni, Gugu; Njokweni, Belemane(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2016)

Aquaculture now contributes 47% of fish available for human
consumption – up from 9% in 1980. This shift to aquaculture
offsets the stagnation in the production from capture fisheries
(FAO 2012). By 2030, demand for ...

Dzifa Torvikey, Gertrude; Awetori Yaro, Joseph; Kofi Teye, Joseph(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape and Future Agricultures Consortium, 2016)

African governments are making important
policy choices in their quest to modernise
agriculture, with some promoting largescale
farming on plantations while
others promote small- or medium-scale
commercial farming.

Young people are a growing proportion of Africa’s population and most live in poverty in rural areas. Despite urbanisation, in absolute numbers the rural youth are growing and agricultural development needs to prioritise ...

Okunlola, Adetola; Ngubane, Mnqobi; Cousins, Ben; du Toit, Andries(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape, 2016)

This report represents one of the outputs of a research and social dialogue project undertaken over 18 months. It explores a number of private sector partnerships and projects launched in support of black farmers – some ...

There has been a decline in commercially valuable fish species, especially the Chambo (Oreochromis spp.), in southern Lake Malawi. Although there might be lack of reliable and scientifically backed evidence, most experts ...

In 2005, a group of researchers, community-based organizations and lawyers got together with small-scale fishers to launch a class action law suit against the government of South Africa in its allocation system of Individual ...